Comprehensive efficiency evaluation model for electrical distribution system considering social and urban factors

• This paper represents a framework for distribution system efficiency assessment.
• The impact of external factors on the system efficiency is investigated here.
• Almost all the efficiency indicators are concerned in the proposed model.
• Sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess system efficiency.
• This model can be employed to direct regulatory policies.

This paper addresses a comprehensive efficiency evaluation model for electrical distribution system. Concerning the efficiency of different resources including energy, infrastructure and human resources, the overall distribution system efficiency is determined on the basis of relevant efficiency indicators. The employed efficiency indicators comprising loss, utilization factor, power factor, load factor, energy not supplied and human resource productivity express the efficiency of the above-mentioned resources. The proposed model takes into account the effect of certain external factors on the performance of distribution system. It has been shown that how external factors such as governance, social behavior and urban planning can directly influence the efficiency of the system. The correlation between efficiency indicators and external factors is derived using artificial neural network and a sensitivity analysis is conducted to illuminate the path of efficiency increment through managing the effective external factors. These indices can be used for improvement of the system performance in system planning. An empirical study is addressed here based on a real world distribution network to investigate the performance of the proposed model.